CTL Blog

Emoji Reactions in the Discussion Forum

November 02, 2015 | 1 Minute Read

Since the launch of the current Discussion Forum tool in 2012, we have been asked if students or faculty could offer one-click responses other than "Agree." Students and faculty can click a simple link to agree with any post in the discussion forum, without having to create a new post stating that they agree with what is being said. However, only having a tool to allow someone to "agree" is limiting. Individuals often want to express more emotions or ideas about a post than simply agreeing to it.

We have added support for a number of other reactions to a post in the Discussion Forum. We are using emoji to help display the various reactions without taking up a lot of screen real estate. For each reaction that is selected, a counter appears next to the emoji indicating the number of people who selected that reaction. Mousing over the counter number reveals the names of the people who selected that reaction.

The reactions that we now support in the Discussion Forum are:

  • Agree
  • Disagree
  • Interesting
  • Like
  • Surprising
  • Thoughtful
  • Exciting
  • Powerful
  • Confusing

We hope you enjoy the additional expressiveness that emoji reactions in the Discussion Forum now provide.

If you think there are additional reaction emoji we should add, please let us know!